Our next gig is on Friday 4th August at LutonAid which is one of the high points of the Luton music calendar with loads of established and new bands – this year ROGUE is headlining on Saturday in a much-anticipated gig after a hiatus of several years. EasyDread and The Baracutas headline on the Friday with fast reggae and ska.

On Sept 2nd we’re looking forward to playing Houghton Rocks festival again and on 8th Oct we’ll be returning to We Shall Overcome at the George II.

I was trying to understand why so many people in England voted against their own best interests in the recent election and this is what I came up with.. it’s very basic, maybe I’ll record it properly later

I think my singing lets it down a bit but you get the general idea. If anyone fancies singing it for me I can send the track without the vox… Guitar, piano.

I went to see an old lady
alone in a big house.
Husband died two months ago, she
Can’t even use the telephone.
Everything had always been done for her,
you see.
She was hostile. “I don’t need you.
I don’t need anyone. Except him.”
And then she cried.

“I was beautiful once,”
she said – and she still is.
Transparently, as if
already a ghost.

“What would we talk about anyway?”
she said. And I thought
we could talk about loss
or gardening
or old films
but she was right
I may know of grief
but I don’t know what it is
to be helpless,
frail, and old.

“You have red hair,”
she said. “I had red hair.
“And I didn’t have to dye it,
either.”

And i made my excuses and left
Well, you can’t force people
If they say they want to be
alone
in a big house.

Like this:

I was chatting with a friend recently and he reminded me about another great Luton institution – PDM (or Paul and Dave’s) Music.

When we were just little Adenoids with a broken guitar and a microwave for a drumkit, PDM gave us gigs and let us earn a bit of money and self respect. And they’re still going, several times a month, putting on local and out of town bands, in the Hat Factory and the Four Horseshoes at local festivals and in the town square. They don’t make money but they do provide a great opportunity for anyone putting a band together to perform and make friends. In today’s world where venues demand you bring fans with you and charge deposits, that is a rare and beautiful thing.

So cheers to Paul and Dave for hundreds of guitar addled nights, and if you’re looking for something to do of an evening in Luton, check out their page: